Plan holds line on salaries

City Manager Sam Azad’s budget plan holds the line on employee salaries in 2014, including pay for himself and his top administrators.

Sam Azad

Azad would get a salary of $150,000 again, while Police Chief Luis Velez would stay at $135,000. City Clerk Gina Dutcher would get $98,000 again.

Freezing top administrators at their 2013 pay levels is common in the budget that Azad gave to City Council on Tuesday.

“No salary increases for department heads or (non-union) employees,” he said Wednesday.

Council is reviewing the proposed budget and it can be reviewed on the city website at pueblo.us and then click on City Government and then the city’s finance department.

Council will have a public hearing on the budget Oct. 28.

Personnel costs make up the bulk of the city’s expenses each year — $55.2 million out of the $75.2 million general fund budget forecast for 2014.

Faced with cutting $3 million in spending next year, Azad gave council a budget Tuesday that eliminates six more vacant city jobs and would even lay off two workers. It’s the first time veteran city workers could remember the city laying off workers.

Before giving council his budget this month, Azad reached agreements with the city’s three employee unions — police, firefighters and general service workers.

While police and general service workers will get small “step” increases next year for having acquired another year’s seniority, firefighters chose to forego those small raises and have the city increase its share of their health insurance cost instead.

All together, those adjustments will cost another $413,000.

There are some adjustments in administration pay, though.

Deputy City Manager Jenny Eickelman served as interim city manager last year for a period and her salary was bumped from $80,000 to $103,000. It would stay there in Azad’s budget for 2014.

Azad has other staff serving as interim department heads. They are being paid at department-head levels, but the low end of that scale.

For example, Interim Fire Chief Dale Villers is being paid $106,000 while former Fire Chief Chris Riley was paid $127,000.

Some other top administrator salaries that would be extended in the 2014 proposed budget: